Do What You Can

One of my favorite quotes is by Teddy Roosevelt, “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” The statement is applicable to so many different areas of life, whether you are living with a chronic illness or not. I think it is a great statement to keep in mind as you battle Gastroparesis.

Gastroparesis causes so many things to be out of our control, so we need to learn to focus on the pieces that we can control. We need to focus on doing what we can, with what we have, where we are. Where we are is coping with Gastroparesis and all that comes with it. What we have is hopefully support of at least a few close friends and family. If they aren’t on board with supporting you then it isn’t worth the stress of trying to get them on board. As a friend once said to me “if they don’t have you on your bad days, they shouldn’t get you on the good days.” (Oddly, the friend that said this disappeared on my bad days so now I am practicing her advice and not having her on my good days.)

Now, we get to the interesting piece “Do what you can”. We know we have Gastroparesis, we know we have some options available to us, so now we need to do what we can. We can try to change our diets, we can try new treatment plans, we can try acupuncture, we can try yoga, we can try to disengage from drama which causes us stress. We can try to keep living our lives. We can try to take our future in our hands instead of leaving in the hands of Gastroparesis.

The fact of the matter is that there is a lot of alternatives for those of us with Gastroparesis to try. No two of us are alike, no two treatment plans are alike…we are like snowflakes. However, this shouldn’t be an excuse to give up on life. Yes, sometimes you have to let yourself have a bad day. However, it is much more satisfying to become ill from trying to continue to live your life than giving up.

So I challenge everyone to “do what you can, with what you have, where you are”! This could be as simple as accomplishing washing a dish which on some days is no small task!